Newsletter December 2025
Welcome to the VELES newsletter, the Smart Health Excellence Hub in South-East Europe.
As we close 2025, we are delighted to share the latest milestones, events, and collaborations that continue to shape VELES as a catalyst for smart health innovation across Europe.
VELES General Assembly | Crete, Greece (5-6 Nov)
On November 5–6, VELES held another successful General Assembly, bringing together the 15 Consortium Partners from the widening countries: 🇬🇷 Greece, 🇧🇬 Bulgaria, 🇷🇴 Romania, 🇨🇾 Cyprus, and the developed countries: 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇸🇪 Sweden, 🇪🇸 Spain.
The meeting took place in Crete, Greece, where our Consortium Partners from the Hellenic Digital Health Cluster (HDHC) warmly hosted the event.
During the meeting, partners shared updates on the four pilot studies currently underway:
🧠 Cerebral Tumors – Romania
🧩 Alzheimer’s Disease – Bulgaria
🎗️ Cancer Treatment – Greece
🧓 Dementia – Cyprus
These pilots demonstrate the power of the VELES mini data space and its ability to generate tangible business, clinical, and societal impact within the Regional Smart Health Data Space (RSHDS).
We also had the opportunity to attend insightful presentations by Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), whose work strengthens the scientific foundation of our pilots:
🧠 AI Models in Alzheimer’s Disease: EEG Preprocessing & Resting-State Clustering
Presented by Alex Trifonov and Tervel Stoyanov (GATE Institute – Digital Healthcare)
🔍 Pain in Dementia: Existing Approaches and Prospective Developments – A Narrative Review
Presented by Paschalis Kontopyrgos
🎗️ Artificial Intelligence and the Differential Diagnosis of Brain Tumors in the North-East Population of Romania
Presented by Dr. Daniela Pomohaci
These contributions highlight the crucial role of research excellence in driving innovation across VELES pilot areas.
HDHC also hosted a special session titled “Building Synergies in Digital Health – Powered by HDHC”, showcasing EU-funded initiatives and forward-looking collaborations led by Crete-based digital health innovators.
The session unfolded across two focused segments:
✅ Session 1 — Collaborative Initiatives in Digital Health
✅ Session 2 — Real-World Data Utilisation for Smart Health Solutions
Online Workshop | Health Data Sharing (10 October)
On October 10, our Consortium Partners from HDHC organized the online workshop:
“Health Data Sharing: Building Trust, Innovation, and Growth.”
The interactive session brought together professionals from across the EU — spanning healthcare, technology, policy, and civil society — to explore key barriers and enablers of health data sharing.
🎤 Speakers:
Alexander Berler | Gnomon Informatics SA, HL7 Hellas, IHE Catalyst AISBL
Angelina Kouroubali | HDHC & ICS-FORTH
VELES at Key Industry Events
🇪🇸 European Digital Health Summit | Madrid (1–2 Dec)
We participated in the European Digital Health Summit, a two-day hybrid event addressing pressing health challenges across Member States and EU4Health-associated countries.
Key focus areas included:
Strengthening healthcare systems and workforce
Advancing the One Health approach
Ensuring access to medicines
Driving digital health adoption
🇬🇷 Innodays | Crete (28–30 Nov)
At Innodays 2025, our partners from HDHC presented VELES to a diverse audience of innovators, researchers, businesses, and students.
The event featured:
An expo area showcasing innovative products and services
Talks by leading experts in innovation and entrepreneurship
Robotics workshops
Innovative Entrepreneurship Awards – Regions of Crete 2025
Discussion panels on:
Artificial Intelligence
Health & Personalized Medicine
Entrepreneurship
🇧🇬 UpToGATE Forum | Bulgaria (27 Nov)
VELES participated in UpToGATE Forum 2025: New Horizons, which brought together leading experts in AI and data-driven innovation.
The forum featured four thematic panels:
AI-Empowered Innovation: Policy, Society & Implementation
Human-Centric Research: GATE in Action
Data Sharing as an Engine for Innovation
Business-Driven Innovation: From Data to Market Impact
🇧🇪 TEHDAS2 & HL7 Vulcan Forum | Brussels (9 Oct)
VELES was represented by partners from IDSA and GATE at the Health Data Policy into Practice – TEHDAS2 & HL7 Vulcan Stakeholder Forum.
The forum focused on:
The secondary use of health data
Implementation of the European Health Data Space (EHDS)
International collaboration for data-driven health innovation
🇬🇷 EU Safety Conference | Crete (1–2 Oct)
HDHC represented VELES at the EU Safety Conference 2025, dedicated to injury prevention and safety promotion.
Angelina Kouroubali, Research Coordinator at HDHC, presented:
How health data spaces can support preparedness within the VELES Excellence Hub
Policy challenges of scaling remote healthcare across the EU under the IRHIS project
🎄 Looking Ahead
2025 has been a wonderful year for us at VELES, marked by collaboration, innovation, and meaningful progress toward a smarter, data-driven healthcare ecosystem in Europe.
We wish you a successful and inspiring 2026, filled with health, innovation, and achievement.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 🎉💫
How You Can Support Us
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Thank you for reading us,
VELES Excellence Hub Team